Core brands Premier Inn and Costa continued to win market share with total sales growing 8.9% and 10.7% and like for like sales up 2.4% and 2.3% respectively.

Whitbread chief executive Alison Brittain said: “This is another good set of results from Whitbread and we continue to deliver strong growth. Whilst it is early in the second half and there is uncertainty in the UK’s economic outlook, we expect to deliver in line with full year expectations.”

Chairman Richard Baker added: “Whitbread has delivered another good set of results with underlying profit before tax up 5.4%. We are continuing to invest in our brands to maintain our leadership positions, whilst our strong balance sheet and cash flow generation has enabled us to increase the dividend by 4.9% to 29.90p.”